4 minute read
The School in the Forest
Mary Ortiz looked at the number of vegetables in the basket and the amount of money left in Grandfather’s hand. “The vendor cheated you again,” she muttered. Mary should have gone to the market herself, but the laundry needed to be washed, and the baby was fussy. Grandfather was her only option, but he couldn’t add or subtract.
“I just didn’t learn it when I was young,” Grandfather had once confided in her. “Math would have made my life much easier. It’s important to get an education if you can.”
Mary knew he was right. Math came easy to her, but not reading. She looked at her young daughter and knew she needed to master the skill for the sake of her child. How could they rise above poverty without an education? Except for manual labor, who would employ someone who couldn’t read?
A few days later, Mary strapped the child on her back and headed to the market. The vendor wasn’t going to get a bonus today! Grandfather went along to carry the packages.
When they arrived, they found people clustered around a woman who sat behind a table. Mary and Grandfather moved closer to hear what was going on.
“And it’s free?” she heard a neighbor asking.
“Yes, it won’t cost you anything,” the woman assured her. “But you do need to register.”
“Register for what?” Mary asked.
“I am with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency” (ADRA), the woman explained. “We’re going to offer literacy classes in this community for anyone who wants to learn and further their education.”
“What is the age limit?” someone asked.
“There is no age limit,” she replied.
Grandfather stepped up to the table, “I’m sixty-five. Can you teach me how to add?”
“Not a problem.”
“I would love to learn to read better, but I have this little one. May I attend with my daughter?” Mary asked.
“Absolutely.”
Grandfather looked at Mary and nodded. The time had come to better their lives.
Mary is one of the many students who told ADRA, “I thank God that I’m here learning with my daughter.”
Every year, hundreds of students graduate from the annual Literacy Project that began in 2002. Most of the students are women, and many are older adults. One 75-year-old man treks 15 1/2 miles (25 kilometers) every day to the Panchimalco school near a mountaintop. “You keep hope alive when you know you are coming here to learn,” he told an ADRA staff member.
“The project aims to change people’s lives by teaching them not just to learn to read, write, and have math skills,” says Alex Figueroa, ADRA’s country director for El Salvador, “but to earn a degree to find jobs.”
“We are grateful for ADRA’s collaboration,” said Patricia Quintanilla, a council member in San Juan Nonualco. “As a municipality, we couldn’t have done what ADRA has done. They have helped us reach communities and provided advice on how to conduct classes.”
ADRA values literacy as a virtue of dignity and human rights. In El Salvador, they operate more than 120 schools in indigenous villages and remote areas of the country. This year, about 1,200 students will graduate because ADRA was willing to transform backyards, gardens, churches, and even huts deep in the middle of the forest into schoolhouses to offer people not only an education but also a path of hope for the future. This service is important because El Salvador’s educational system is suffering from the challenges of extreme poverty, lack of technology, and lack of transportation from small remote villages to places of learning
ADRA
ADRA is a global humanitarian agency with more than 5,000 employees and 7,000 volunteers serving in over 120 countries. In addition to supporting communities in long-term humanitarian crises and conflicts, ADRA responds to an average of two disasters per week. Although our country offices are spread across different continents and thousands of miles apart, ADRA works as a unified body to provide innovative solutions to a world in need. To learn more about ADRA, visit ADRA.org.
Thank you for supporting ADRA through your weekly mission offerings and, in North America, by giving to World Budget. To give, visit adventistmission.org/donate
